A Global Trek for Daryl and Carol: The Walking Dead Spinoff Heads to Spain

The third season of their spinoff series will see the fan-favorite duo, Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier, embark on an even more ambitious journey after an intense season finale that forced them to take a detour through the treacherous Chunnel.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol concluded with Daryl and Carol narrowly escaping France, only to find themselves trapped in the subterranean tunnel facing a horde of bioluminescent zombies and hallucination-inducing bat droppings. However, showrunner David Zabel and his team have chosen to take the characters on a more convoluted journey, starting production on season three in Spain, instead of leading them directly to the safety of London.

“The characters should not settle down. It should be a road show. They have to keep moving [to return home],” Zabel told The Hollywood Reporter. “At the end of season two, they’re going somewhere. We don’t know exactly where, and it’s not a direct line to the next place they go. However, the goal is to maintain the characters’ struggle and determination to return home and continue their journey.

The decision to uproot Daryl and Carol from France and transport them to the Iberian Peninsula marks a bold creative choice, one that franchise chief creative officer Scott M. Gimple believes will reinvigorate the spinoff series.

“We loved the revitalization we experienced going to France, and we wanted to continue doing that,” Zabel explained. “On another level, we get to bring in a whole other culture, history, flavor, color, light, and architecture.” This will be an exciting opportunity to reinvent the show.

Zabel hinted that Daryl and Carol’s journey to Spain will be far from simple, even though the specifics are still unclear. “It’s not a direct line to the next place they go. But the idea is to keep the characters struggling and striving to get home and moving.”

The showrunner also hinted at the possibility of unexpected crossovers, acknowledging that the actions of other characters within the broader Walking Dead universe could influence future storylines for the pair. “At some point, I imagine the actions and locations of other characters [in the franchise] might determine some things.”

For now, fans can look forward to seeing Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride continue their iconic buddy dynamic as Daryl and Carol navigate the challenges of the Spanish landscape, both natural and undead. With the duo’s resilience and problem-solving skills put to the test, the next chapter of their odyssey promises to be a gripping and unpredictable ride. “There’s so much they haven’t seen and experienced,” Zabel said. “They’re both characters who are [landlocked Americans], and in that sense, they’re these classic Americans who never got to travel the world,” Zabel said.

They both had reasons to stay close to home. That was part of what I found exciting from the start—taking those characters and exposing them to these things they might have once seen in a book or a picture, and now they’re in the middle of it.” As The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol closes one chapter, fans eagerly anticipate where Daryl and Carol’s long journey home will lead them next.